18 Days
by linzay19
Summary: When an agent from another part of the FBI asks for the BAU's help, it's a race against the clock to catch this Unsub before he claims another teenage victim. All is not as it seems with this case. Reid finds himself drawn to the agent, the team notices and wonders if he is finally ready to move on after the tragedy with Maeve. But, there will always be bumps in the road...
1. Prologue

When an agent from another part of the FBI asks for the BAU's help, it's a race against the clock to catch this Unsub before he claims another teenage victim. But, all is not as it seems with this case. Reid finds himself drawn to the agent, the team takes notice and wonders if their beloved genius is finally ready to move on after the tragedy with Maeve. But, there will always be bumps in the road...

I included the name of which characters are reading the bookend quotes.

* * *

_Reid:_

_**"I guess by now I should know enough about loss to realize that you never really stop missing someone-you just learn to live around the huge gaping hole of their absence." -Alyson Noel**_

* * *

Prologue

It had been almost a year since Maeve was murdered. There were still mornings when Reid woke up and the first thing he thought about was her. There were still days when he read her favorite books and remembered her infectious laugh. There were still nights when he felt the dull ache in his heart from where it had been ripped to shreds by a single gun shot. Sometimes, he just hurt.

For the most part, however, Reid's life had returned to normal. He went to work and proved day after day that he was the smartest man in the room. He rattled off statistics and always seem to know the one bit of obscure information that helped the team catch the killer. He still read books and read more newspapers than any normal person would. For all intents and purposes, everything was the way it was before he met Maeve.

But Reid couldn't help but feel down sometimes. He had only ever loved one woman and in the blink of an eye, she was taken from him. What made it worse was the fact that the first time he had ever met her in person was also the last. There were days when he thought that he shouldn't feel this way but then he recalled when Rossi told him that he should grieve as long as he needed to. Rossi's words almost gave him some sort of permission to just completely break down, just for one night.

There was a time, though, when Reid hit a dark point. Right after Maeve's funeral, Reid contemplated using dilaudid again. He just needed a moment where is head was clear and his heart didn't hurt. He craved it more than after being kidnapped and tortured. He craved it more than when he thought Emily was dead. He craved the sweet relief that he knew it would give him. But, in a moment of clarity, he heard Maeve's voice in his head, telling him that this was not the way she would want him to grieve.

The days were getting easier and the nights weren't as hard for Reid. He had been going back to Beltway Clean Cops in order to cope with the cravings. He had been picked up playing the piano again. He knitted more scarves like the one that he wore to the Doctor Who convention that he attended with Garcia. He took up watching foreign and independent films and played more chess.

The team also helped out when they could. JJ would bring Henry over and they would read fairy tales and play board games. Rossi would often times have the whole team over for dinner. He said that he wanted to do something nice for them team, but everyone knew the Rossi was also still grieving the loss of Strauss and wanted the company. Hotch served as his mentor and consistently reminded Reid that his door was always open if he ever needed to talk. Blake would do crossword puzzles with him and they would have competitions to see who could finish first. Morgan and Garcia would have movie nights and invited Reid along. He was never really interested in the movies they watched, but he went so that he wouldn't have to be alone.

Over the past year, Reid had healed quite a bit, but he still had a long road ahead of him. The last few days, however, he wondered if now was a good time to get back out there and see if he could find someone. After all, he knew that Maeve would want him to be happy and not stop his life because she was gone. She would want him to go out there and show the world what a great man he was.

"Easier said than done," Reid thought to himself. He wasn't always the most sociable person and had always been a bit awkward around women he was attracted to.

He thought back to the time when he and Morgan had been in charge of handing out fliers with the sketch of the unsub the were looking for while in a night club. Morgan suggested that he talk to the bartender and Reid didn't know what to do. Morgan told him to use magic to his advantage, and to Reid's surprise, it worked. The memory reminded him of how he loved to talk about magic with Maeve. He knew that she really wasn't interested in magic, but she listened and giggled at his enthusiasm.

Reid heard his phone buzz against he table. He looked to see that he had a text message from Hotch.

_"We have a case._  
_-Hotch"_

Things were about to change for the young doctor.

* * *

_Reid:_

**_"Life must go on; I forget just why." -Edna St. Vincent__ Millay_**

* * *

Sorry it's so short. The story will really pick up in the next chapter.


	2. Day 1

_Morgan:_

_**"There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed." -Napoleon Bonaparte **_

* * *

Reid entered the briefing room just as Hotch was about to address the team. He say down next to Morgan and began to search for something in his messenger bag. He glanced up for a second and saw someone that he had not seen before. Immediately, he noticed her red hair and, for some reason, became fixated on it. The fixation only lasted a few seconds before Hotch began to speak and snapped Reid out of his trance.

"Guys, this is Agent Athena Drake. She is with Crimes Against Children. She has a case that she has asked us to assist her with. Agent Drake, this is Agent Rossi, Agent Jareau, Agent Blake, Agent Morgan, Dr. Reid, and our Technical Analyst, Penelope Garcia," Hotch said.

"Pleasure to meet all of you. You can called me Agent Drake or Attie, but please, don't call me Athena," Agent Drake replied.

"Athena is actually the name of the Greek goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill. It's a very powerful name," Reid rattled off.

"Reid..." Morgan said as Agent Drake shot Reid an unamused look.

"I'm aware of what it means, Dr. Reid," Agent Drake said, her southern accent rather prevalent. "Now, if we're done playing Jeopardy, allow me to tell you about the unsub we are here to catch," she spouted off as the rest of the team just looked between her and Reid.

"Sorry..."Reid mumbled.

"Penelope, if you could handle the slides. The man that we are looking for has been kidnapping, raping, torturing, and killing girls between the ages of 15 and 17. He takes them, keeps them for 18 days and then we find them in a local park. Two days later, another girl goes missing," Agent Drake said.

"Not much of a cool down period. How many victims has he taken so far?" Morgan asked.

"Over the last six months, he has taken eight girls and he just took his next victim last night," Drake replied.

"Which means we have about 17 days to find her before she turns up in a park," Rossi added.

"That means we need to hit the ground running. Agent Drake has provided us with all of the evidence her team has gathered and a list of suspects that they haven't ruled out," Hotch added.

"Something else worth adding, the last victim was a fighter. She clawed at the unsub and scratched him..." Drake said.

"So we have DNA?" Blake asked.

"That's the thing, there were two sets of DNA on the victim that did not match hers," Drake answered.

"So, he has a partner?" JJ asked.

"That's what my team thought at first, but all of the evidence points to only one unsub. That's why I'm hoping this team can help," Drake said.

JJ flipped through the pictures off the victims on her tablet and noticed that there was a similarity in their appearance.

"Well, he has a type. Blonde hair and blue eyes," she said.

"Do the victim's paths ever cross?" Morgan asked.

"The only common denominator we've been able to find between the victims was that they all seemed to frequent the same clothing store," Drake answered.

"Them and about half of the teenage population. So, what makes them so special?" Morgan thought out loud.

"Have we cleared all of the male employees at the store?" Blake asked.

"Yes. Most of them are in high school and their parents can vouch for them. One is in college, but when he's not working, he's working towards keeping his GPA up so that he can get into medical school. The security footage from the school's library can back him up. He practically lives there," Drake answered.

"Wow, someone who reads more than Reid. Never thought I'd see the day," Rossi joked.

"If he does have a partner, he will be an extremely submissive one. The fact that most of the evidence points to one unsub suggests that the partner may only be there to help with the initial abduction. After that, he really doesn't play that big of a role at all. If he did, we would have more evidence to support it," Reid said.

"But, if he doesn't play that big of a role, then how did the victim scratch both the unsub and the partner?" JJ asked.

"Maybe he helped move her to the disposal site where the unsub killed the victim and she was able to get part of both of them," Blake suggested.

"CSU said that the victim was dead before she was dropped in the park," Hotch answered.

"We speculated that the partner was there when the unsub killed the victim, but that has been the only plausible explanation that we've been able to come up with," Drake added.

"Morgan, I want you and JJ to go to the site of the latest abduction. Rossi, you and Blake speak with parents of the victims. See if you can find any other correlation between them that can help figure out why he is choosing these girls and where he is meeting them. Reid, you and I are going to go through the files with Agent Drake to see if we can find any other evidence that supports a partner. Nothing against your team, Agent Drake. It never hurts to have a fresh set of eyes," Hotch said.

"No offense taken. I wouldn't have asked for the BAU's help if I thought my team had all of the answers," Drake replied.

"Garcia, I want you to look into the background of all the victims. Look at spending habits and see if there were any other places where their paths crossed. Also, look into online activity. He could be meeting them that way," Hotch added.

"Got it, sir," Garcia replied.

The team got up and went out on their assigned tasks. Reid and Agent Drake sat in the briefing room and began in go through the files.

"I need to run to my office for a few minutes. I trust that the two of you can work together peacefully until I get back?" Hotch said as he was leaving the room.

"Yes, sir," Reid responded. Hotch left the room and there was an awkward silence quickly filling to room. "I'm really sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to offend you. Sometimes, I don't know when you keep my thoughts to myself," Reid finally said to break the tension.

"It's fine. I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just, this guy has been such a pain in my ass the last few months and I'm ready to finally nail the bastard so I can sleep at night," Drake said, genuinely sorry about her actions.

"I just have to say, though, I really do like your first," Reid said, as he blushed a little.

"Thanks. My parents are really into Greek Mythology. My dad is actually a professor in the subject at the local college back home in Nashville," Drake replied.

"Wow, Nashville. How did you end up in Quantico?" Reid asked.

"I did my undergrad and graduate studies in criminal justice at the local college in Nashville. I attended a seminar on jobs with the FBI and here I am. I think it horrifies my parents that I deal with this kind of stuff, but I don't mind it. I feel like I'm making a difference in the world by catching the bad guys who do these god awful things, no matter how insignificant it may be," Drake answered.

"It's not insignificant. You've made a difference in the lives of the victims and their families. That's a pretty big achievement," Reid said.

"Says the boy genius," Drake said as they both giggled at the comment.

"I see you two are getting along better now," Hotch said as he re-entered the room. "Have you found anything yet?"

"I read the DNA results again. It said that there were skin cells and blood cells found under the victims finger nails," Reid answered.

"Is that significant?" Drake asked.

"I'm not sure yet..." Reid mumbled.

* * *

_Hotch:_

_**"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious." -Oscar Wilde**_


End file.
